Supergirl 3×09 – Reign

"The moment you start believing in something is the moment you give your power away. I'm not gonna give away mine."

It’s midseason finale time and you know what that means: shows pull out all the stops to guarantee our devotion next year. How does Reign fare? Well it’s pretty darn good.

It’s no secret that I’m in love with Odette Annable. The actress has delivered consistently stellar work since joining the cast of Supergirl in the season premiere. We grew to love Samantha and her heartwarming bond with Kara and Lena, and that makes her transformation into uber villainess all the more impactful and thrilling. The show thankfully goes all out with her explosive skirmish with Kara in the final ten minutes. The Kryptonians crash an office party (love the Christmas soundtrack), then fight their way through a cargo ship before decimating a street in National City. It’s all so tremendously exhilarating, and the show continues to do wonders with a modest budget.

More importantly, the show allows Kara to actually lose. In fact, Reign brutalizes Supergirl to such a harrowing degree that our heroine actually bleeds. It’s a jarring sight, but it’s necessary to elevate the stakes and effectively position Reign as a proper Big Bad and Kara’s most formidable adversary to date. The music (or lack of as Kara falls down the side of the building) and cinematography (notice Reign approaching with a car door) work beautifully together to shape some unforgettable visuals.

Unfortunately, the rest of the episode can’t live up to the Reign adventures. I’m alright with Lena and James hitting it off romantically (although I think Lena deserves a more captivating subplot), but the love triangle between Kara, Mon-El and Imra is tedious to watch. It recycles the same beats over and over, and adds nothing new to the show as far as I’m concerned. All of the episode’s momentum with Reign exacting justice on petty thugs comes to a screeching halt whenever the triangle comes back into the fold. Unfortunate!

Super Bits

– J’onn’s dad discovering a new kind of “brown water” (this time Hot Cocoa) is a hoot.

– How great were the Christmas vibes in the Danvers household? They’re all such a big happy family.

– Bravo show for selling us on the three bffs (Lena, Sam and Kara). It makes Sam’s arc all the more exciting!

– Hey look Thomas Corvilleis back to deliver exposition. I actually like the character a lot.

– Morgan Edge however is a disaster. He feels like a carbon copy of Maxwell Lord (another terrible villain) who ruined season one.

– Did anyone else hear Sam say that she used to work in Central City? Would be fun to see her interact with Barry.

– Sam gives Ruby a Supergirl necklace. Something tells me we’ll be seeing that again towards the end of the season.

– I got Batman vibes as Reign and her big black cape started terrorizing those thugs from the shadows.

– The slow shirt-rip with Sam in the elevator (just like Kara) was epic.

– Do we like Reign’s voice? It’s a bit too digitally enhanced for my taste.

– Was anyone else waiting for Superman to swoop in and save Kara mid-air as she fell in slow-mo? And then BAM. Wow.

– The ending was a bit weird. Are we to assume that Sam even looks different now?

Kara Quips

Morgan: Didn’t recognize you without a .38 in your hand.
Lena: Maybe I should hit you in the back of the head and put you on a drone headed for the reservoir.

Alex: (to Kara) Listen to me. I know you have been struggling the past few months and I have been trying to get you to embrace your humanity. But forget that. Be cold. Be Kryptonian. I don’t know why but this thing really scares me. So please, be alien.

Conclusion
Although the relationship elements were a real bore, this midseason finale still packs quite a punch with its spectacular final act.

8 comments

WORD. Perfectly stated. Those last 10 minutes made up for all that boring relationship crap. What is the point in bringing back Mon-El, honestly? The character literally served his purpose last season and his death was impactful. He’s literally useless now!

But those last 10 minutes: woowwww. Reign coming back with the flaming car door: MOST EPIC MOMENT ON THIS SHOW YET! And the Christmas party fight was super amusing!

I’ve never been this excited about this show as I am now! Can’t wait for more Reeiiiggnnn!!!

YES to all of it. I loved – LOVED – the final sequence, and can’t wait to see how the Reign plot plays out over the season. I’m so curious about how Ruby will figure into it, and the villain with child angle reminded me a little bit of the Absentia finale (I know you didn’t continue but there is a bit about the love of a child defeating evil).

The non-love triangle with Imra, Mon-El and Kara has been SUCH a drag, and it keeps rehashing itself in every scene. Look, she’s so nice though! Look, they’re so in love though (kissing, eating drumsticks, sparring, blah blah). Look, Kara is so very sad as she watches them do each one of these things. All they’re missing is a Christmas rendition of “Dancing on my Own”. Khalas, we get it. Imagine now they pull off an Alias Vaughn-Lauren-Sydney move. Hmm. Alias does seem to be a go-to TV inspiration for many. Hello, Irina Derevko and your many sub-par Shonda clones.

Now, back to that epic fight. The car door scene really stuck with me as well. It was so well done. The ship sequence I didn’t love as I found myself confused over who was doing what and what exactly Reign was trying to do. Like you I was expecting either Superman or more likely J’onn to sweep in and carry Kara so the blow on the pavement was a jaw-dropper as her friends watched on from the sidelines.

Looking forward to seeing Kara come back from this and her journey through this season!

Loved your long reply Tots!
Hmmm.. I feel like I should continue Absentia although I lost interest after a few episodes. You got me intrigued.

Ditto about the love triangle! It was seriously cheesy and annoying. And I love what you said about the ship because I actually had to watch it twice to understand that Reign was trying to tip the ship over. The fact that I had to rewatch means something about the staging and choreography of that sequence was choppy and off. Great catch!